No deal as Libyan talks fail

Rival parties get together but ceasefire agreement remains unsigned

LIBYA’S rival leaders have left Moscow without reaching agreement on a ceasefire deal, with Russia trying to downplay the talks’ failure yesterday.

The deal was proposed by Russia and Turkey in an effort to bring an end to the country’s long-running civil war.

Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli, and his rival Khalifa Haftar came to Moscow on Monday for talks with top diplomats and military officials from Russia and Turkey.

The talks lasted about seven hours, and Sarraj and Haftar didn’t meet directly.

They considered a draft document spelling out details of a truce proposed jointly by Russia and Turkey that began on Sunday.

Sarraj signed the draft before departing, while Haftar requested more time to consider it and then left Moscow without signing the document.

In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to teach Haftar

“the lesson he deserves” if attacks on the Tripoli government continued.

Addressing his ruling party’s legislators, Erdogan praised Sarraj, saying he had displayed “an extremely constructive and compromising” stance during the talks in Moscow.

Erdogan added that it was now up to Russian President Vladimir Putin to convince Haftar to agree to the ceasefire proposal.

“The coup-plotting Haftar first said ‘yes’ but then fled Moscow,” Erdogan said.

“We have completed our duty; the rest is the duty of Mr Putin and his team.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sought to downplay the talks’ failure, saying that efforts to broker a peace deal would continue.

“We all work in the same direction and urge all the sides (of the conflict) in Libya to negotiate instead of trying to sort things out violently,” Lavrov said.

Russia and Turkey welcomed Germany’s plan to hold a Libya peace summit in Berlin later this month.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Moscow on Saturday to discuss Libya with Putin, and they had a phone call on Monday in which the Russian leader briefed her on the results of the talks in Moscow.

The truce brokered by Russia and Turkey marked the first break in fighting in months. There were immediate reports of violations by both sides, however, raising concerns it might not hold.

Libya plunged into turmoil after the 2011 civil war that ousted and killed long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Various foreign players back Libya’s rival governments, and they have recently been stepping up their involvement in the oil-rich nation’s conflict.

Russia has maintained contacts, with both conflicting parties in Libya, but the government in Tripoli has recently charged that Russian military contractors were fighting alongside Haftar.

Turkey, in turn, has sent military personnel to Libya to support Sarraj’s government.

The joint Russia-Turkey mediation effort in Libya follows the deals they struck to co-ordinate their action in Syria, where Moscow has shored up President Bashar Assad’s government and Ankara has backed his foes.

Haftar had rejected any Turkish interference, including through mediation and ceasefire monitoring activities, Al-Arabiya broadcaster reported, citing its sources.

GNA Foreign Minister Mohamed Taher Siala told Sputnik yesterday that Sarraj’s delegation had already left Moscow for Istanbul.

The Libyan warring parties announced a ceasefire on Sunday, effectively halting the months-long LNA offensive to take the GNA-held capital of Tripoli. |